Refugee Children in Greece Write Story Book

Refugee children from various camps in Thessaloniki tell their stories in the book “Wandering Refugee Tales,” recounting their adventures away from home.

Unlike their situation, the stories the refugee children tell in the book have happy endings.

The book is written by volunteers from around the world who work in refugee hospitality facilities in Thessaloniki and listened to the refugee children telling their stories.

“We worked with 16 refugee children from 6 to 14 years old, and we asked them to tell us stories, which all chose to have a happy end,” Debora de Pina Castiglione, one of the creators of the project told ANA-MPA news agency.

The book is supported by Micropolis-Social Space for Freedom, the Eko Project – Vasilika and the initiative Where is the life – Lagkadikia.

“Every little tot and every little butterfly in the book, have their own different life story. Some have been to school in Syria or in Turkey, but when it came time to go to school, the school had been destroyed. Despite their diversity, almost all stories — eight in number — talk about a welcome to a new unknown place. At the same time, they are full of movement, arrivals to new cities, journeys and relocations. These are the issues that concern the children who spent part of their lives traveling and still do not know how and when they will find their destination,” says the book’s introductory note.

The children made stories about Rama, a girl who wants to have her own home and make new friends, Juramb, the dog who was only playing and had no family, Amira, the princess who left the castle to wander in the forests of the world and for the mother duck who lives with her baby in a chocolate house built in Thessaloniki.

The money collected from the sale of the book will support projects that are looking for alternative ways of accommodating families of refugees in Thessaloniki.

The book is on sale for 10 euros and can be found at [email protected] Apart from Greek, it is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Italian, French, German, Arabic, Albanian and Russian, Castiglione said.